Steel shelving.



sns ra'rnr ersten.

THOMAS M. ALOTHROP, OF GLENCOE, ILLINOS, ASSIGNOR TO THOMAS M. LOTHROP & CO., OF CHICAGO, LLIN 01S, A COPARTNERSHIP.

STEEL SHELVNG.

Specication of Letters Patent. Patented [t py: 13 rigging.

.sppneanmi ined January 19, i914. serial No. massa.

To all whom 'it may concern Be it known that l, THOMAS M. Lommer, a. citizen of the United States, residing at Glencoe, in the County of Cook and State of illinois, have invented certain new and useful improvements in Steel Shelving, of which the following is a specification.

The present invention relates to shelving and the principal object of the inventionis to provide shelving of such Construction and arrangement that it may be readily assembled or taken-apart, Veconomically manufaetured, of long life inservice, capable of being built up to dillerent heights and numbers of shelves, With or Without backs, readily adaptable to the. insertion of additional intervening shelves and compartment dividers, and also capable of ready extension or contraction by the-addition or removal of parts. in carrying out these objects, l provide one or more continuous shelves, each made up of one or more shelfsections, and support and space them by posts of simple and economical construction. A novel arrangement of braces may be employedto hold the assembled parts in position, or this function may be performed by the backs themselves, where the latter are employed. Simple unifbrm fastening means secure the various parts together. The added .intervening shelves are readily secured to the posts and the added partitions or dividers are Similarly secured to the adjacent shelves.

The various features of my invention will be more fully'undcrstood upon reference to the following detailed description taken in connection vvith the accompanying drawing, and the scope of the invention will be particularly pointed out in the appended claims.

In the drawing Figure 1 is a perspective view of a section of shelving constructed and assembled in accordance with tbe`present invention; Fig. 2 is a similar View of the sectiim taken from the rear; Fi 3 is :1 perspective view of the post emp oyed in the structures of Figs. l and 2; Fig. 4 is a view of the blank employed inrmaking the post of Fig. Fig. 5 is a perspective vieu' of a compartment divider, Fig. G is an elevation,

` art bein@ in section and Dart bein broken p E5 l away, of the middle front post of the strucbelow the sheV f ture of Fig. l, illustrating' the manner securing the posts to the continuous sh. and the intermediate shelf to the po: l' is a view similar to Fig. S5 of a mo formof post; Fig. 8 a top viev: of a ond modified post; Fig'. 9 is a vertical tion, parts being broken away, of a t form of post construction, showing also the posts and shelves are. to be secure to-v gether; and 10 is a view similar to Fig. il of a fourth form of post. coi'istruction. Throughoiitv these views like characters refer to like parts.v A

leferring to the (lr-anfing in detail, 10. 11 and 1Q, designa e three shelf sections of 'the section of sheli .g illustrated. Post.; i3, il. 15, 16,17 and of the same length, support the former ui they latter. Shrirt posts '115) u may be employed to support the entire icture upon the iloor or other surface up .rhich lthe shelving rests. Ur these post if? may be omitted and the shelf l" allowed to rest directly upon the ,againstdisplacemcnt In the particular,I assembly illustrated, a'portion of the structure is assembled by means of intersecting telcscopic braces, comprising the brace sect-ions 24, Q5 and 26, 27. ln this assembly also, a compartment divider 28 and a' longitudinal partition or .divider 29 are positioned between the shelves 1 0 and y11. An additional shelf 30 is also interposed between the shelves 11 and 12 and is secured at-its ends 'to the posts 15, 16, 17 and 18. Y

The continuous shelves which go to make up a complete assembly are preferably ma de up of sections like the shelf sections 10, 11 and 12. These sections are composed of assembled sheet-metal provided with front flanges 31,' i rear flanges 32, and end flanges 33.

vided with a row of holes 36 along its-fronti edge and a similar' row 37 along its rear edge, in each case adjacent to the flanges.

l The front and' rear flanges 3l and 32 may also be perforated as occasionmay require. In the particular assembly illustrated, the rear Hange of each of theshelves l0, llland l2 is perforated at a-plurality of points,

'designated 38, so that the' back 23 may be.

properly secured in position. The rear 32 of the shelves 10, and l2 are also perforated at additional points 39, 39, for4 the proper securing of thediagonal bracing. W here an intermediate shelf section, such as 3f), is employed, its vend flanges are perforated the same as .the other shelf sections, but, in this case, the holes in the flanges lare used to secure, the shelf-to the sides of the supporting posts. l v

The particular posts Villustrated in Figs. land 2 are constructed, as shown in Fig. 3. Each post is formed out of a blank 40. The end portions 41 and 42 andthe side portions 48 and #ll are bent up into the form' illustrated in Fig. 3, so as to provide a box-like structure whose end portion 4l is adapted to bear against the underside of th'e shelf above and whose end portion l2 is adapted to bear against the upper side of vthe shelf below. Vith this construction the ends of the webs 43 and 44 also bear against the corresponding sides of the adjacent shelves. In illustrating this construction of post.y the post l5 of the structure of Fig. l has been taken.' Accordingly, the holes in the webs 43 and ill are those provided for use in securing intermediate shelf sections,

. such asBi. Irl-assembling the posts of the shelf sections, the central web of the post preferably located on the outside of the structure, although this, ofy course, is not necessary.' In Fig. G we have..

this saine post l5 and the foot-post 19 shown connected to the shelves l1, 30 Aand l2. In

. assembling these parts, threaded bolts 46 and nuts `rl? of uniform size are employed. Indeed, it is preferable to use'bolts and nuts of' uniform size throughout the entire assembly. In securing the postl to the shelf l1, the hole in the portion 4l is brought'op posite'a hole in the shelf 11 and a bolt 46 is passed through the two openings and a nut 47 securely applied. A similar bolt and nut secure the foot of the post l5,.\the shelf volition, and various changes 1n details of construe-- vthe spirit and scope of the invention; In Fig. 7 I have illustr atedfal modified madero before, holes in the llange' and web are brought into 'alinement and the bolt passed through and secured. The diagonal bracing' illustrated in F l and 2 comprises two intersecting braces.-

7eV i @ne of these includes sections 24 and 25 i and theother sections 26 and 27. Seetions 2st and 27ers' each provided with holes at their upper ends 'for connection to the rear llange 32 of the upper shelf 10. Similarly, scctions'Q and 26 are provided with holes in their lower endsfor connection to the vrear fifmge 32 of the lowermost shelf l2.

Ilaeh pair of sections is slotted at their inner ends so that thev complete brace may be adjusted 'to dill'erent lengths. ,Willen this is done, bolts 48 and coperating nuts secure the two sections together in adjusted'position. These bolts and nutsare the saine as the ones'previously described as rused in securing the posts and shelf sections. A. similar bolt 49, having; a coperating nut, eX- tends through the'slots ofthe two braces at the point of intersection and .the nut is screwed down when the various shelf parts have been assembled and brought into their proper final position.

As before pointed out, compartment diriders, such as 28,- niay be employedl betweenr adjacent shelves when desired. These di' vviders preferably consist of a single sheet of metal having upperland lower flanges 50 and 5l suitably perforated so'that; they may be secured to the adjacent shelves by bolts and nuts like those heretofore-'described. As shown in Fig. 5, the upper portion of the divider is notched at 52 and53 so that the front edge of the divider may come flush with the front edge .of the shelves without cutting away the flangesonthe shelf above,which are preferably turned vin at their lower edge, as indicated at 54,

to' provide a neat finish to the shelves and give entra. strength.

W'here desired, longitudinal partitions or dividers 29 may be employed. These are provided with flanges -at their 'upper and' lower edge's`,and Vthese flanges are suitably perforated to register with perforations in" the 'adjacentfshelves lsovthat thel divider -may-be secured in place by bolts' mld'inuts i like those previouslyJ described. Obviously, in practising the presentinvarious modifications of the parts from liv

Cdl

.foi-ated or not, just as in the case of wel:

Fig. Il, but here horizontal portions ll andA l2 are lreplaced b v Wings or extensions 55 and '-56 nponthe Webs l and fle-l, respectively. These wings are perforated with pei-fora tions having a distance between thein such that the;T will register with the perforations in the liront and rear edges of the shell` sections.' As before, flanges 43 and ll may be perforated or not, as circumstances require.

lnA Fig. 8 another modilication ol post construction is shown. lere the inain web 57 is circular in outline and terminates in parallel ivebs 5o and 5S). These may be per- Lll und ll oi Athe previously' described posts. A horizontal portion (il). similar to the. p0rtion l -in the case ot Fig. 3, toi-ins :in extension of the web' 57 and lies between the flanges 58 and perforation in this portion the saine function as the perforation in 'the portion l ot the post of Fig.

lnlig. 9 a` tourt-h torni of post is illustrated. Here the bottoni post lll tcri'ninates in a threaded extension 452 wl ch cui a @threaded socket in the lower end ot' por-:t -132-3.

Similarly, a threaded` extension lfl, i-pon post 63, enters a socket in post "53. ln senibling the parts, the extension o2 is passed through a hole in shclt1 l2 before being screwed heine into the socket in post G3. Similarly, the extension on post o?, passes through a hole in shell ll before being sides ol th'ep themselves. hinnlarlv. the inwardly projecting extensions (Si and 68 of the Webs and ll are bent b-.icl-q upon themselves. The bent back portions in each case are hooked into each other and the same are conipactly pressed together sons to make a tight boxlilie structure. Posts ot this constriuztion nniy be readily.' made upon machines such as are employed in nninufzicturing cans ot- I Y The end portion and the Webs are perforated in this sheet tinnnti similar material.

case as in previous ones Jlor the purpose of connection with cooperating parts.

ln the practice of my invention it will be apparent that man3; alterations and modifications may nine-e in addition to those herein indice 'en z departing from the sait posts to said sh -tions whereby the position of any post indy 'posts in spirit and scope of the 'Lnvention Such alterations and modifications l aim to cover by the terms of the appended claims.

What l. claim as new and desire to secure b v Letters Patent of the United States is l. Shelving comprising continuous sheetmetal shelves each composed of one or more sections having one or more longitudinal llanges :tor giving supporting strength and rigidity to seid shelves and each having holes positioned at intervals along its length, sheet-metal posts having a plurality o l vertical webs each web operating as a thrust member when the shelves are loaded and each post being of a length such as to tit between adjacent shelves at any 'desired point throughoutftheir length, and devices separate from said posts cooperating with the holes in said shelves tofesten the ends of lves different posibe shifted as desired without moving any o fief other parts.

IShelving comprising continuous sheetinetal shelves each composed of one or more sections having one or more longitudinal flanges for giving supporting 'strength and rigidity to said shelves and each having holes positioned at intervals along its length, sheet-metal posts having plurality ot' vertical webs each web operating athrnst ineniher when the shelves are loaded and nach i'iost having n horizontal lange at each end adapted to bear against Ythe adjacent shelf und provided ivith hole for coperating with the holes inthe adjacent shelf and cach post being' of a length such as to lit lr-ctwccn adjacent shelves at any point througln'i'ut 'their length, and bolts and nuts r i" copei^ation with registering holes in said lizingcs and shelves for securing the desired positions between i said shelves.

Shelving comprising continuous sheetxnetal shelves and sheet-metal Y\osts for snpgorting and spacing seid shelves, each post, comprising a pluralitvof substantially verticzil webs meeting along one or more substantially vertical lines and extending from shelf to shell and each post having :a horizontal flange nt each end secured to the ends of one or more of seid Webs and extending at right angles thereto in position to bear against the surfaces' o the coperatine; shelves. l

d. Shelving co nprising continuous sheetinetal shelves, sheet-metal posts for supporting and spacing said shelves, each post including a pluralityT of subst/antiallg7 vertical Webs meeting along one or more substantially vertical lines and extending from shelf to shelf and each post having a horizontal llange at each end securedto the ends of one or more of said webs and extending ich i at right angles, thei'eto position to bear In. witness whereof fhereunto subscribe against the surfaces of the ooperating my name this 17th day of January, A. D. shelves, and a short'bolt passing through a 1914. i A hole in4 each said horizontal a'nge and. THOMAS M. LOTHROP. 5I through a coperating' hole in the associated Witnesses: l shelf and provided with a' nut for securing EDWARD A. DICKER,

the parts together.. I; E. LABSEN. 

